The U.S. Navy and the Defense Innovation Unit have selected defence technology firm Anduril to participate in a programme aimed at developing extra-large autonomous underwater vehicles, intended to help address operational gaps in long-range undersea missions.
The selection forms part of the Combat Autonomous Maritime Platform Project (CAMP), a U.S. Department of Defense initiative designed to rapidly prototype and field extra-large autonomous underwater vehicles, often referred to as XL-AUVs.
Under the programme, Anduril will carry out a long-duration demonstration of its Dive-XL autonomous underwater vehicle within four months of contract award. The demonstration is intended to test the platform in operationally representative conditions and evaluate its endurance and range.
According to the company, the selection followed a competitive Commercial Solutions Opening run by the Defense Innovation Unit. Anduril said it had previously conducted what it described as the longest XL-AUV demonstration to date, designed to validate the platform’s extended-range performance and operational endurance. The company stated that its autonomous undersea vehicles have collectively completed more than 42,000 kilometres of operations and accumulated over 6,700 hours of mission time.
The CAMP initiative is intended to enable the U.S. Navy to experiment with extra-large autonomous underwater vehicles at scale and develop a pathway toward wider operational use of such systems.
The company pointed to its previous work with the Royal Australian Navy as part of the Ghost Shark programme, under which it delivered an extra-large autonomous underwater vehicle and a dedicated production facility. That project, Anduril said, demonstrated an approach designed to accelerate delivery timelines compared with traditional procurement programmes.
Production of the Dive-XL platform currently takes place in Sydney, Australia, while the company also operates a facility in Quonset Point, Rhode Island, intended to manufacture dozens of Dive-XL vehicles and hundreds of smaller Dive-LD platforms each year.
Apparently Boeing is desperate to get out of Orca, no surprise silicon valleys most questionable defence meme company wants to wet its beak.
These large UUV’s are probably useless for most tasks and anything they can do well is probably easily done by a sea glider, autonomous mine or smaller UUV for a fraction of the cost.